The present invention relates to electronic devices, more specifically to modular electronic devices which include numerous interchangeable electronic components.
Electronic devices include, for example, microwave devices, e.g., microwave antenna and microwave network analysis testing devices. All electronic devices must be constructed to electromagnetically shield the individual components making up the device. This is particularly important if the device includes numerous components which would be affected by electromagnetic radiation, e.g., printed circuits and the like. These types of components must be isolated from extraneous electromagnetic radiation which would affect their operation. Furthermore, the components must be shielded to reduce the potential of electromagnetic energy emission to the external environment.
Presently, the electromagnetic shielding is performed by independently housing each component. This housing is formed from an electrically conductive material, e.g., aluminum. The individually housed components are then assembled, with any necessary interconnections between the numerous components being made using appropriate electromagnetic cables or wave guides. The device is thus an accumulation of numerous separate housings. This type of construction achieves the desired result, that is, electromagnetic isolation of the numerous device components; however, the resulting device configuration is cumbersome.
The individual device components may also include separate subunits, e.g., a daughter board of a printed circuit board, which needs to be separately electromagnetically isolated. However, presently available construction techniques make the separate electromagnetic isolation of these individual subunits impractical.
Another reason for separately housing the individual device components is to reduce the replacement cost of components which become inoperative. By separately housing the individual component, a particular inoperative component is easily replaced without interfering with the remaining components; however, the disadvantage of assembling these separately housed components remains.
It would thus be beneficial to provide a structure which houses numerous interchangeable modular electronic components, while maintaining the electromagnetic isolation between the individual components. Further, the structure should be formed to provide for the distribution of electronic power and data, and for microwave devices for the distribution of microwave energy, between the individual components.